


Dreams

by LostCauses (Anteros)



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Angst, Character Study, M/M, chapter 81, eruri - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-03
Updated: 2016-05-03
Packaged: 2018-06-06 05:07:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6739282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anteros/pseuds/LostCauses
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The touch of skin is enough. The slow steady rhythm of Erwin’s pulse beneath his fingertips is enough to assure Levi that his dream lives on for one more night.  Levi is a stoical man, not given to grand ideals, lofty goals and flights of fancy, but he is still a man and, like any man, he dreams.  As dreams go, Levi used to think that his was simple enough; Erwin alive, whole, and happy.</p><p>Written in response to SnK chapter 81 spoilers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dreams

The touch of skin is enough. The slow steady rhythm of Erwin’s pulse beneath his fingertips is enough to assure Levi that his dream lives on for one more night. 

Levi is a stoical man, not given to grand ideals, lofty goals and flights of fancy, but he is still a man and, like any man, he dreams. As dreams go, Levi used to think that his was simple enough; Erwin alive, whole, and happy. 

But years of war have worn his dream away, eroded it to its very core; Erwin alive.

He will never be whole again; Levi knows this. The war has ripped away more than Erwin’s arm; the outward injury conceals deeper wounds that Levi fears are far beyond his power to heal.

And happiness? Well, that was always just a futile dream, not meant for the likes of them. There were brief moments when Levi had caught a glimpse of what might have been. Moments when the heat and want coiled between them, when Levi shattered beneath Erwin’s touch, when blue eyes drifted closed, and they lay tangled together in the quiet of the aftermath. Levi remembers the taste of Erwin’s skin, his hands at his throat, remembers Erwin filling the desperate emptiness inside of him, driving out the fear and loneliness and regret. And Levi remembers the softest smile, a memory so distant that he wonders if it was ever real. 

These are all just memories now. 

The heat that drew them together has long since been smothered by the weight of the dead. The fire smoored until not a spark remains. Though Levi knows there is an ember smouldering still, somewhere buried deep. 

It’s Erwin’s dream that drives them forward now and the closer it comes within reach, the more Levi can feel his own dream slipping through his fingers. Stubborn and tenacious as he is, Levi fears that Erwin alive is as improbable a dream as the ocean. 

But for now the touch of skin is enough. Erwin’s pulse beating slow and steady against his fingertips. Levi watches Erwin sleep, dream kept alive for another night, and wonders what the world will look like when he wakes.


End file.
